Formolo makes it solo
August 14 th 2020 - 16:46
Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) claimed his first victory on the roads of the Critérium du Dauphiné after a massive solo effort en route to Saint-Martin-de-Belleville. The Italian climber went for the early breakaway and dropped all his companions on the Col de la Madeleine. After a 66km solo effort, he maintained a 33’’ gap on the line ahead of the overall leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and his runner-up Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ). The general classification remains extremely tight ahead of the final week-end in the mountains.
A 154-rider pack leaves Corenc without Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo), who sustained injuries when they crashed during Stage 2. The Irish climber was riding the Critérium du Dauphiné for the 9th time and he needs to abandon the race for the first time, due to a non-dislocated sacral fracture according to his team.
The riders still in the race are eager to battle from the start and it brings a very hard pace. Daniel Oss (Bora-Hansgrohe), Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Pierre Latour (AG2R-La Mondiale), Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates), Christopher Juul Jensen (Mitchelton-Scott), Soren Kragh Andersen and Jasha Sütterlin (Team Sunweb), Guy Niv (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Maxime Chevalier (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) cover 50.3km in the first hour of racing, but the pack only trails by 1’10’’.
Formolo goes solo in La Madeleine
Jumbo-Visma set the pace in the bunch en route to the ascent up Col de la Madeleine from an unprecedented side. The gap is up to 3’30’’ in La Chambre (km 86), at the bottom of the climb. Davide Formolo and Pierre Latour drop their breakaway companions after 90km of battle. And the Italian national champion goes solo a kilometre further. At the summit, Latour trails by 45’’ and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) leads the peloton with a delay of 5’25’’.
Formolo pushes his advantage in the downhill and the valley ahead of the final climb. Jungels and Kragh Andersen join Latour inside the last 20km. They trail by 3’20’’ at the bottom of the final climb to Saint-Martin-de-Belleville: 14.8km with a deceptive average gradient of 6%. The gap to the bunch is down to 3’50’’.
Bora and Jumbo accelerate but Formolo holds on
Wout van Aert keeps pulling and sets a strong pace in the first part of the climb, the steepest. Tom Dumoulin and Steven Kruisjwijk take over with 10km to go. Halfway through the climb, Formolo still enjoys a 2’50’’ lead. Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) accelerates with 6km to go and Formolo’s lead drops under 2 minutes.
Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) ups the ante in the final 2km of the climb but Formolo has enough energy left to make it all the way to the finish after a 66km solo ride and claim a major victory five years after the Giro stage win that caught the World’s attention. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) shows his strength again, taking second on the day after his victory at Col de Porte. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) finishes right behind the Slovenian rider and remains second of the general classification (+14’’).
